Submitted by Lawrence Kuznick, Mar 5, 2008 16:29

I am currently in Brazil, which I have been visiting yearly for the last few decades. For the first time ever, shops are refusing to accept payment in US Dollars, whereas in the past they were always eager to do so. The Dollar is no longer 'real money´. As an American, aside from the obvious declining power of our currency and the concurrent higher cost of virtually everything for us here, I am also embarrassed by what is happening. We look very different today than before.

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